Aziza Shoukry Hussein

Aziza Shoukry Hussein also spelled as Aziza Shoukri Husayn, (30 May 1919 – January 19, 2015) was an Egyptian social welfare expert and leading advocate of family planning. She was active in Egypt's feminist movement. In 1962 she became the first woman to represent Egypt at the United Nations, and she served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women for fifteen years. She was president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation from 1977 to 1983.

Quotes

• My advice for Egyptian women is to have more confidence, for they have great powers that they are unaware of, powers of compassion and humanity.
  • In a television interview, Aziza Hussein encouraged Egyptian women to recognize their own abilities and to trust in their capacity to contribute to society and lead change.

• They should learn to trust more in other people because through collaborative work they can achieve a lot.
  • Continuing the same television interview, Hussein stresses the importance of cooperation and collective action in advancing women's rights and community development.

• My father was a feminist and gave us opportunities to study and go to university.
  • Recalling her childhood in an oral history interview, Hussein credits her father with encouraging his daughters' education and independence at a time when this was uncommon.

• People are different from one another and that is why they don't understand each other.
  • Speaking during the launch of her memoir, *A Pilgrim Soul*, Hussein reflects on the importance of empathy and understanding in human relationships and public life.

• He was enlightened in every sense of the word.
  • In her oral history interview, Hussein describes her father as an unusually progressive physician whose values of generosity, education, and equality profoundly shaped her life and later activism.

• Who would have thought that at age ninety-three I would still be so active! Implementing projects, hosting receptions, and even enjoying intense love – be it transcendental – and here I am, writing my autobiography for you.
  • Aziza Hussein opens her memoir by reflecting on her remarkably active life at the age of ninety-three, expressing gratitude for a lifetime of public service, personal fulfilment, and continued engagement with society.

• Life begins at 80.
  • Aziza Hussein adopted this saying, originally attributed to the American folk artist Grandma Moses, as a personal motto to express her belief that old age can be a period of renewed purpose, creativity, and public service.